Syria

US issues notice for petroleum shipments to Syria

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued an advisory notice concerning the risks of transporting petroleum shipments to Syria. OFAC warns that such actions could breach U.S. sanctions.

OFAC advises, in the strongest terms, against the carriage and supply of such cargoes to the Syrian Government or any other Specially Designated National (SDN).

Acting this way would be in breach of U.S. sanctions and would potentially open the carrier to the full force of penalties from the U.S....

https://safety4sea.com/us-issues-notice-for-petroleum-shipments-to-syria/

US warns about oil shipments to Syria

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has identified nine targets in an international network through which Iran, working with Russian companies, provide barrels of oil to Syria.

US sanctions prohibit material support to Syria. Namely, all assets subject to US jurisdiction of the individuals and entities added to the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List), and of any other entities blocked by operation of law due to sanctions, are frozen, while US...

https://safety4sea.com/us-warns-about-oil-shipments-to-syria/

French Ambassador Says Washington Could Do More to Help Shape Syria’s Future


The Bashar al Assad regime’s ever-tightening circle on Syrian resistance fighters could send a million or more refugees into Turkey and scatter thousands of Islamic extremists around the region, France’s ambassador to Washington warned Monday.

Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., he added, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met over the weekend in Istanbul to discuss...

https://news.usni.org/2018/10/30/french-ambassador-says-washington-help-shape-syrias-future

Panel: Tehran’s Quds Force Key to Russian, Iranian Interests in Syria

The Iranian Quds Force organizes, equips and finances the 50,000 Shia militia in Syria that provides the ground troops for the Russian and Iranian effort to prop up the Bashar al Assad regime, a retired senior Israeli Defense Force general said on Wednesday.

Assaf Orion, a military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said newly announced American determination to maintain a military presence in Syria until the Iranians leave is possibly overlooking the extent of Tehran’s...

https://news.usni.org/2018/10/18/panel-tehrans-quds-force-key-russian-iranian-interests-syria

HASC Panel Questions Pentagon’s Syria Strategy

A U.S. Marine with 3d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, attached to Special
Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Crisis Response-Central Command, fires
an FGM-148 Javelin, a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile, at his target during
a live fire demonstration near At Tanf Garrison, Syria September 7, 2018. Marine Corps photo.

CAPITOL HILL — In Syria, the Pentagon appears poised to embark on a conflict with no clear end-strategy, members of the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and...

https://news.usni.org/2018/09/26/36861

Report to Congress on Armed Conflict in Syria

The following is the Sept. 21, 2018 Congressional Research Service report, Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response.

From the report

The Syria conflict, now in its eighth year, remains a significant policy challenge for the United States. U.S. policy toward Syria in the past several years has given highest priority to counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL/ISIS), but also has included nonlethal assistance to opposition-held communities, support...

https://news.usni.org/2018/09/24/36780

Marines Prepared to Use F-35Bs in Middle East Combat If Needed; No Other Naval Aviation Nearby

F-35B Lightning II, attached to the “Avengers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, sit on the flight deck of Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) on Sept. 4, 2018, while transiting the Indian Ocean with San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during a regularly scheduled deployment of Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). The Essex ARG and 13th MEU is the first U.S. Navy/Marine Corps team to deploy to...

https://news.usni.org/2018/09/12/marines-prepared-to-use-f-35bs-in-middle-east-combat-if-needed-no-other-naval-aviation-nearby

+ More